Remote sensing of penetrable objects buried beneath two-dimensional random rough surfaces by use of the Mueller matrix elements

The modified Mueller matrix elements for electromagnetic scattering from penetrable objects buried under two-dimensional random rough surfaces are investigated. This matrix relates the incident to the scattered waves, and it contains different combinations of the fully polarimetric scattering matrix elements. The statistical average of each Mueller matrix element is computed on the basis of the Monte Carlo simulations by exploiting the speed of the three-dimensional steepest-descent fast multipole method. The numerical results clearly show that relying only on the co-polarized or the cross-polarized intensities or both (i.e., uv, hh, vh, and hv) is not sufficient for sensing the buried objects. However, examining all 16 Mueller matrix elements significantly increases the possibility of detecting these objects. This technique can be used in remote sensing of scatterers buried beneath the rough ground. (C) 2003 Optical Society of America.